Beth Ragen

Interviewee: Beth Ragan
Interviewers: Dorothy Nygren and Amanda Timlin
Date: July 7, 2022
Place: Edgewater Historical Society, 5358 N. Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60640
Transcriber: Amanda Timlin
Time: 11:35

Copyright © 2022 Edgewater Historical Society

DN: My name is Dorothy Nygren. I’m here with Amanda Timlin at the Edgewater Historical Society doing an interview with Beth Ragan about her experiences with theater at the Edgewater Beach Hotel. Today is July 7th, 2022. Welcome Beth and the first question I’d like to ask you is what is your association with Edgewater?

BR: Yes, thank you very much. I’m very glad to be here. I actually have a family association with the Edgewater Beach Hotel when my uncle who was in Loyola Dental School had a part time job as a chauffeur in Chicago. His name was Gene Mahoney. He drove his customers to the Edgewater Beach Hotel for dinner and for cabaret shows and big band performances. So that was my initial family contact. This was in the 1930s that this happened. 

Then when it came time for me to apply to college and universities, I applied to Loyola, was accepted at the Lakeshore Campus in Chicago. Loyola had leased the Edgewater Beach Hotel in 1968 before their dormitory was completed. So I was in the last group of people ever to live in the Edgewater Beach Hotel in the fall of 1968. We had a ball because here we had this wonderful, large, beautiful hotel that had been built in 1916 and as students we had really the run of the hotel. We used the old Marine Dining Room as a theater to put on performances because the new theater was not yet finished on the Loyola Campus. I was the assistant director for the performance of The Fantasticks, a musical, for a man named William J Norris. Bill was a theater major and this was his directing project as a senior drama student at Loyola. I basically helped him with the blocking for the musical and giving the lines for the students. We had a very successful run of The Fantasticks.

(2:58)

Then Bill went on to become a very famous actor in Chicago and beyond, both theater and films. Bill was the first person to be Scrooge in the Goodman Theater’s production of A Christmas Carol. He played Scrooge for quite a few years and really built up that production to success. It’s continuing to run today with a different cast. But Bill put in the initial talent and enthusiasm into the Christmas Carol for the annual production at the Goodman Theater.

DN: So one might say his career was started in Edgewater?

BR: Yes, his career started in Edgewater, right at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in the old dining room of the hotel. We had a piano and we had all the room that we could ever want because that hotel dining room used to have big bands perform right there. We found the program of the last performer that was ever at the Edgewater [Beach] Hotel. The professional actor was George Gobel. So there was the program with George Gobel’s picture! He was both an actor and a comedian and quite famous. And he was the last professional actor then to have an act at the Edgewater [Beach] Hotel.

(4:44)

DN: Do you have any recollection of other experiences with theater at the Edgewater Beach Hotel?

BR: Yes, yes! The other production that was done was Mother Courage. And that was a play that was done by Bertolt Brecht. It was a fairly complex play with quite a few sets and period costumes. And once again a great start for other performers who went on to act in the Chicago area. Many of them went on to perform with the Organic Theater Company in Chicago. And one name that I remember was Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, who was one of the actresses.Then we also had a woman named Carol Loverde who was involved in these plays. And Carole went on to become a professor of voice at Columbia College. 

DN: All this is very fascinating. I had no idea. Do you have any other recollections of Edgewater Beach Hotel?

BR: Well, the Edgewater [Beach]Hotel - we were there for really one full semester. But I do recall that years later I did attend a performance at the Broadway Armory which was 5917 North Broadway. And they used that venue for Scottish theater performances that had bagpipe players and they would be marching in the Armory. They needed that kind of space in order to produce these performances. So I have a distinct memory of hearing and being there for a Scottish theater that was about the Black Watch in Scotland. 

DN: Do you know of any other theater groups in Edgewater or have you attended any other Edgewater theater groups?

(6:52)

BR: Some of the other theater groups, in some cases, were subsets of the Loyola Theater group. Once the new theater was completed in Rogers Park, they started using that theater. But I would say that some of these very small either bars or restaurant locations were often used as, let’s say, stand up comedy venues also.

DN: Now you have your own history of involvement with theater, not necessarily in Edgewater. But I think you got the bug when you were living in Edgewater. So can you share some of your own further experiences?

BR: Absolutely, being involved in theater, whether it’s behind the camera or behind the performance or as part of it was always very exciting to me. My web is more of a political science major but theater always was a side interest. And I would always find any reason to go to theater. So today as a much older person, I do support both the Goodman Theater downtown in Chicago, the North Light Theater in Skokie, the Lyric Opera downtown, Chicago Shakespeare - all of the community theaters. Porchlight Music Theater - I do attend their performances. So it became a lifelong passion for me and it did all start in Edgewater.

DN: What would you say is the importance of theater, theater life, and in general for everybody?

BR: In theater, the whole world is open to you. So whatever attracts you in terms of peoples’ personality traits, whether it’s comedy or very serious drama, whatever mood you’re in, you can always find some theater performance that will enhance that and really bring out I think the best emotions in you personally. And then there are always deep life experiences and truths that you really learn from theater.

(9:43)

DN: That’s very comprehensive what you’ve shared with us and very interesting, some things about Edgewater I didn’t even know. Well I shouldn’t say even I didn’t know. I’m learning constantly. Amanda, are there any other questions you might think of asking?

AT: Yeah, I was going to ask, did you live in Edgewater at all besides your time at Loyola?

BR: I lived in Edgewater the first semester of my freshman year so that was the fall of 1968 then when the dormitory was finished on the campus then everyone from the Edgewater Beach Hotel moved to the new dormitory. So then we had a new theater by the way. So then they started taking the old Edgewater apart and then started demolition, tearing down the old building. So I believe by 1972, I think the old building was gone.

DN: Anything else? Not necessarily right now. So we’ve left the end of the interview for you to say whatever you like. And maybe there’s something we haven’t talked about or some passionate plea you want to make but it’s all for you now. 

BR: Well I certainly would encourage all the listeners to investigate their local theaters and to support them and just experiment. Go to something that you never would have thought of attending and there’s almost always an affordable ticket that you can find. And both the actors and the people behind the scenes will be very very grateful and then you will have had a wonderful rewarding experience, something that you’ll always remember.

DN: I can’t think of any better way to conclude this interview than with what you’ve just said. Thank you so much for sharing your time with us Beth.

BR: Thank you.